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Hot Pot Rankings in SF

Tasty Pot – Taiwanese Supreme Spicy Hot Soup

I’m doing you a favor and ranking all the hot pot places I’ve been to in the city. You’re welcome. I’ve lumped in all the shabu places with the hot pot places, because at the end of the day, it’s you cooking stuff in a big pot of broth. (And if you don’t know – AYCE stand for all-you-can-eat.)

Dragon Beaux – The a la carte menu is nice because you can pick exactly what you want in your hot pot, AND you can also order their dim sum along with the hot pot. It’s the BEST OF BOTH WORLDS. You can make your own sauce with their 5 options – chili sauce, soy sauce blend, garlic, shacha (Taiwanese BBQ) sauce, and mustard. I haven’t done the AYCE , but I hear they have it on Mondays-Thursdays. Also, the service is amazing.

Tasty Pot – (pictured above) It’s a legit Taiwanese place with pig blood cakes and stinky tofu on the menu. You can get your own individual pot by picking different “themes” of the hot pots, and everything that’s listed on the menu for that “theme” already comes cooked in the pot. No cooking required! They also have excellent bubble tea for to-go dessert.

Shabu Club (AYCE) – The AYCE option is great. The meat and veggies are fresh, but they have the MOST AMAZING sauce. It comes pre-blended in a bowl, and it’s this garlic-cilantro magic so you can eat and eat and eat and eat til you explode.

Nabe – This is a local neighborhood joint for us. We can order a large set of meat/veggies (as opposed to a regular set usually meant for one person) between the two of us and with some appetizers, like gyozas or octopus salad, we’re always stuffed. They do this thing at the end, where they bring out a bowl of rice (or use your leftover rice) to make Zosui rice where they mix it with your leftover hotpot broth, skim off any oils from your cooking, add an egg, some seaweed, and you got a yummy bowl of porridge! If you weren’t full by then, you definitely will be after the porridge.

I-Pot (AYCE) – This is a Chinese place where they have a big sauce bar so you can make your own sauce, and tons of options for meat, seafood, and veggies. They also have the extra stuff like different types of fishballs, meatballs, tripe, etc. I sometimes get overwhelmed because they have so many options and I want everything, and then I end up having to roll out the restaurant. We went with my family, who loved all the variety and options, so it’s definitely better with a bigger party.

Shabu House – This place you can do AYCE or order a set of meat and veggies. Otherwise, it wasn’t that memorable for me.

Shabu Shabu (AYCE) – This was in the Fillmore, and it was my first time doing AYCE Shabu everrrr. But the service was terrible, and the meats/veggies weren’t that fresh. Don’t recommend.